I would have gone for Bloom County over Opus. Maybe because Opus and Outland never ran anywhere I could read them on a daily basis. But face it, without Bloom County there would never have been any spin offs.

Gordo by Gus ArriolaThe Spirit by Will EisnerPrince Valiant by Hal FosterKrazy Kat by George HerrimanTarzan by Burne HogarthLittle Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCayHogan's Alley by R.F. OutcaultFlash Gordon by Alex RaymondThimble Theatre by Elzie SegarPolly and her Pals by Cliff Sterrett

There's a reason why comic artists take great honor in the Eisner Awards. Any top ten list without The Spirit is poorly researched.

BizarreMan:I would have gone for Bloom County over Opus. Maybe because Opus and Outland never ran anywhere I could read them on a daily basis. But face it, without Bloom County there would never have been any spin offs.

Opus and Outland were great but Bloom County was orders of magnitude better. Should have been on the list...

Little Nemo should be on the list. High on the list.Peanuts should be higher.I love Liberty Meadows, but I don't think it had the distribution, the influence, or the longevity of the rest of the list, so I was surprised at its inclusion.Maybe one of the serialized strips other than Doonesbury where the characters age. I'm thinking Funky Winkerbean or For Better or For Worse.

Gullyborg:There is absolutely, positively, NO excuse for Peanuts being any place but number one.

Except that Calvin and Hobbes was better.

Peanuts was a great strip, and is rightly a legend of the comic strip world. But if I were going to just sit down and read a comic strip for the fun of it, I would choose Calvin and Hobbes before anything else. Hell, there are quite a few strips I would pick over Peanuts for pure enjoyment value.

My personal choice for the strip to replace Garfield on the list: Zits.

For my money, Bloom County tops them all. It was a HUGE part of my adolecence/teen years and helped to make me a politically astute person who had a broad and yes, cynical view of the world. It was also farking hilarious.

If you hit the used book stores, a dying breed no doubt, you may be able to find old collections of Pogo. I have a number of them and have read more in my Dad's collection. They are fantastic. I would put them in the top 3 with Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side. #4 is Breathed's stuff and #5 is Peanuts. Peanuts books are ridiculously collectible. I buy them at estate auctions and ebay those suckers for quick profits.

One of the best moments of my life is when I got my seven year-old son the first Calvin and Hobbes book. At first he didn't know what to make of it. I had to explain comic strips to him. After the first page, he didn't speak to me or his mother for two days. All he did was read the book and giggle.

Don't much care for the political aspect of it (I used to read the comics to escape all that shiat), but there were/are some damn funny elements. I still laugh whenever I think of that woman channeling a goddess or cavewoman or whatever that was.

4 - Peanuts

Got a soft spot for older strips when Snoopy had a thinner nose. Vulture still makes me laugh. Should be #3 though.

3 - Pogo

My Dad used to have a collection of the old Pogo books. God, they were works of art. Topically, they are dated, but still good reads. Never got to read it as a daily. The political bent here was 'funny ha-ha' not 'funny fark you'. Good stuff. Should be #4 though, Peanuts was huge.

I'd say Doonesbury should be higher, but I can't argue with any of the four that are ahead of it (though Pogo only because I just don't know anything about it other than its reputation). I also tend to lean more towards Far Side than C&H, but that's just splitting hairs.

Instead I'll just join the chorus of "Opus instead of Bloom county? WTF?"

Cyberluddite:Gumpus: Cannot argue with 1 and 2, though I would have reversed the order.

I agree with that, but as for the rest of the list . . . I mean, Garfield?!? Really?!? Garfield is a comic strip for people who find "Family Circus" to be too controversial and cutting-edge and who think of "Mark Trail" as being too fast-paced.

Yeah, I don't recall this golden age when Garfield was edgy that this dude seems to. It's always been really, really bland. Oh, Garfield hates Mondays and loves lasagna! What a stitch!

CSB: I went to high school with Bill Watterson (Chagrin Falls OH, class of 76). He drew cartoons in the yearbook. A few years later when I was moving (before C&H) I decided that nostalgia was stupid and threw away my yearbooks. I am a dumbass.